On Being Salt and Light
Matthew 5: 13-16

February 9, 2014

The crowd has been uncommonly still at the teaching of Jesus. Word has spread throughout Galilee of his compassion, of his incredible acceptance of those who come to him, and of his miraculous healing power.  Jesus is no ordinary Rabbi for he teaches plainly and simply enough for all to understand. The words seem to roll off his lips like water from a mountain stream:
    Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven…
    Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted....
    Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of     evil against you     because of me…
Then Jesus pauses and with a clear ring of his voice utters words that echo in the deepest canyons of the listener’s heart:  “You are the salt of the earth...You are the light of the world.” 
Can we not see those peasant Jews of Galilee looking at one another in disbelief?  “We are the salt of the earth?  We are the light of the world?  Who is Jesus kidding?  We’re nothing but poor, ordinary peasants who have to fight for every breath we breathe and every morsel we eat.  The Pharisees and the Sadducees, they are the salt and light.  Not us.  Jesus has it wrong this time.  We are powerless and helpless to change anything in our world.  These are ridiculous words.”
Are these words so ridiculous?  Are they any more ridiculous than God’s call to Israel to be a light unto the nations, to be his priests and take knowledge of him throughout the world?  Israel was small, powerless, and insignificant, but that did not stop God from using her.  These inquirers after Jesus, these early followers, were no less insignificant, but in this text we see Jesus calling them to the same mission.  Here is the vision of God for them, the pronouncement of “who they are” based not upon their own comprehension, but upon God’s. Jesus gave them this incredible promise that is at once fulfillment.  Jesus did not say “will be” or “could be” or even “maybe,” Jesus said “You are the salt of the earth and the light of the world.” 
Salt and light were essential elements of human civilization in the day of Jesus.  They were also metaphors used by Judaism to speak of the relationship of the law to the life of the Jewish community.  The law was to make a difference in the life of their community.  They were to live differently — and in so doing to have an impact in their world.  Judaism was the salt and light of the world and now Jesus is proclaiming to his followers that this is to be their role, their responsibility. 
Those who are salt and light are those who are “persecuted for righteousness’ sake…” i.e., who live out the ethic as proclaimed in these beatitudes.  Jesus knew that living this ethic would produce discord and persecution in the world — it had for the ancient prophets and it would for the church.  To be salt that was good, salt that had not lost it’s “saltiness” — was to be those who took this calling seriously and never wavered in the face of cultural opposition.  
Jesus was speaking not only to those gathered on that hillside.  He was speaking these words to any and all who would ever call him Lord.  The early church remembered these words and wrote them down because, in spite of their ridiculous character, the early church saw them as God’s pronouncement for eternity as to the character and mission of those who would follow Jesus.  Just as these were to be the salt and light of their culture, so we are in ours.  Just as these were to provide the moral and spiritual leadership in their topsy-turvy world, so we are in ours.  What does Jesus mean when he uses the metaphors of salt and light?  What do these metaphors mean in his world—and therefore in ours?  Let us examine some of the qualities of salt and light to understand what Jesus meant.
Salt, by its very nature, is essential to life as we know it.  In the first century, before the days of antibiotics, salt was used as a purifying agent as it was poured into a wound to cleanse and promote healing.  Salt was a preservative, used to keep meats from spoiling.  In an era long before refrigeration salt was used to cure meat for long trips and for storage.  Without salt taking meat on a journey of several days or longer would have been impossible in the heat of the Middle East.  Salt was essential to the physical survival of these nomadic and desert-dwelling peoples.
As Christians we are essential to the survival of our culture.  Without the witness of Christians to the love and grace of God in Jesus Christ can we imagine how hopeless and helpless our world would be?  Through the sharing of the love of Jesus Christ and our incarnating the values and ethics of the kingdom we make a profound difference in the life of our culture.  When I see “secular” groups that travel the world to help people, i.e., “Doctors without Borders” I am grateful to be a part of a community that helped to foster medical missions around the world.  When I see groups going to underdeveloped areas of our planet and helping provide clean water and better hygiene, working to increase literacy and educational levels, as well as training and enabling people to have a valid skill and way of earning a living, I am grateful for Christianity’s missionary heritage which has been carrying out such ministries for centuries.
Christians are essential to a culture which has split itself apart and lost any sense of the common good, for Christianity promotes fellowship and community across all the barriers of life.  In the early church salt was a metaphor for fellowship, for sharing community with one another.  This sense was derived from its use in the Judaism as a symbol of the covenant which Jews shared with one another and with God.  On some sacrifices salt would be thrown on the altar as a symbol of God’s presence and covenant. In the early church they spoke of “sharing salt” with one another — meaning both table fellowship and their bond in Jesus Christ.
As with Salt, Light was a common metaphor in Jewish life, especially as it spoke of the impact of Torah upon the life of the Jew.  To obey Torah was to follow the light which God had given humankind through Israel. Light functioned to illuminate, to show things as they really are and not as they appear to be.  The menorah, the seven armed candelabra which originally shone in the temple, was a reminder of the light which God had given Israel in the Exodus and then through the Torah.  The priests and lawyers had assumed the responsibility of being the correct interpreters of Torah and therefore were the providers of the light for Israel and the world.
With our modern conveniences it is almost impossible for us to comprehend the depth of this saying of Jesus.  We take light for granted and yet it was crucial to their day.  Care was taken that lamps had both oil and wick.  To be without light would be disastrous.  When Jesus says that we are the light of the world he is using a common metaphor to make the same point: as his followers we are essential in our world and it is through us that the Light of Christ will make a vital impact in our world.  Without the salt and light of the followers of Jesus this world is condemned to war and violence, hatred and retribution.  Without the salt and light that we are to provide this world will be without a moral compass and will wander all over the landscape in search of true north. 
How can we be salt and light?  The best way I know is to “be who we are called to be.”  Jesus has called us to a life of discipleship and in so doing we will be salt and light to the world. 
When we support our church budget and through her the ministries and mission efforts of ourselves and our partners, we are being salt and light.
When we go the extra mile in our every day lives, we are being salt and light.
When we bring sanity, reason, and even love to the discordant discussions which abound in our chaotic society, we are being salt and light.
When we share love and bring hope to someone who has lost their way, we are being salt and light.
“Who we are and how we see ourselves determines what we do.  Every time.”  Our actions come out of our self-image, of who we understand ourselves to be.  If we do not see ourselves as the chosen of God, created by him and loved by him, then we will live out of an image far less than that.  As we live up to our calling in Christ Jesus we fulfill our role as salt and light in a world which needs both.
As the most famous pollster in the world George Gallup, Jr. has made his reputation by telling us what others believe, not what he believes.  So it is very interesting that after completing a poll on American religious beliefs in which he discovered that about 90% believed in God, he issued this rejoinder:  “Never before in the history of America have so many people claimed belief in God and His Word, and yet never before has it made so little difference in their lives.”
Mr. Gallup noted that though most claimed belief in God, in Jesus as God’s Son and our Savior, and in the Bible as God’s Word, very few could identify the four gospels, the letters of Paul, or other specific questions about the Bible.
The question of salt and light is one that, I believe, can be framed rather succinctly:  Do we in the church desire visibility or impact?  Do we want to be seen or do we wish to make a difference in our world?
How crucial is it that we have an impact in our world?  The states with the highest rate of belief in God and religious affiliation are found primarily in the Southeast and Midwest — the predominantly conservative, Bible Belt states: Mississippi leads the list as having the highest rate of belief.  The lowest rates of belief are in the Northeast: New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine and Massachusetts.  However, when we look at some other issues we do not come out so well in the South.  In literacy rates we are among the lowest — we have a greater percentage of our population who cannot read or write.  We also have a greater percentage of our population who subscribe to online or cable pornography.  The states with the lowest rates — the Northeast!  We also rank above average in teenage pregnancy rates — which are overwhelmingly unwed mothers.
Why is this so?  Could it be that we in the Southern Protestant church have spend so much time and energy on studying the Bible and getting people to heaven that we have ignored dealing with real issues that affect every day lives?  Could it be that we need to study the Bible less and actually obey it more?  Certainly our faith calls upon us to help people to learn to read, to grow in their education and to understand the importance of sexual ethics.  Statistics consistently show that if you finish high school before you get married and have children after you are married you have an 80% chance of staying off welfare.  Further, the number one statistic which predicts whether or not a child will become a prisoner at some point in his life (other than being a minority male) is whether that child grows up in a two parent home and whether they can read on grade level when they leave elementary school.  In many states the estimates of future prison population are made on the basis of how many fourth grade males are reading below grade level. 
Could it be that the greatest contribution we as Christians can make to our society is to go to our elementary schools, read with the children who are lagging behind and tutor them so that they can catch up and maintain their grade level? 
 The calling of the Christian life is to cooperate with the calling of God and in so doing to become who we already are in the loving eyes of the Father.  If we would strive to be salt and light, i.e., strive more to live out of the self-identity which Jesus has given to us, then our communities would be vastly different.  In being who we are called to be we will be change agents for Christ in a world which has lost it’s way.
Mahatma Gandhi took this understanding of salt as being a change agent in society quite literally. Gandhi identified Britain's monopoly on salt as a symbolic key to India's freedom. Every villager needed salt — yet they had to buy it from approved companies and persons. By marching to the sea and breaking the imperial law in picking up a pinch of salt, Gandhi chose persecution, redemptive suffering, and freedom. His people followed his example. Millions of them made, bought, and sold salt in defiance of British law.  Hundreds were beaten as they advanced on salt works, tens of thousands including Gandhi were jailed, but Britain's rule over India was in effect ended.  
When we are salt and light, when we live out our calling under Christ, an interesting phenomenon happens in us — we gain a reason and purpose for living outside of our own selves.  In a probing article this week a golf writer analyzed whether Tiger Woods, the greatest golfer of all time, would be a great “older golfer,” i.e., Sam Snead or Jack Nicklaus.  A prominent golfer had told him that he did not believe that he would.  When asked why he gave two thoughts: “Great success breeds great boredom.”  It is really hard to keep at it when you have attained lofty goals.  Then he added a second insight which took me back: “You don’t just need talent and work ethic to be great…You need a reason.”
Do you need a reason to be?  Are you bored with life and what it offers?  Could it be that in Christ being salt and light to this world is what God is calling you to be and do?
We live in a world which is dependent on our being salt and light, no matter the cost.  Let’s be who we are called to be…the world needs us and our Lord has called us.
Amen.